1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a procedure for preparing a patient prior to the administration of medical treatment. The invention relates more particularly to an improved apparatus and method which facilitates the preparation procedure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior to medical treatment such as surgery, suturing, treatment of superficial wounds and fractures, etc., it is generally necessary to prepare the patient's body site at which the treatment will be administered. The preparation procedure comprises the removal of body hair, cleansing and sterlizing the body site. Body hair is removed to facilitate access, viewing and the application of various medicants. In some hospitals, the preparation procedure may be required with different patients as often as forty to sixty times each day, depending upon the day-to-day demands on the surgical department. The preparation procedure is also frequently required at more limited emergency medical facilities and at physicians' offices. Preferably, the procedure is conducted with a degree of cleanliness and sterility commensurate with the requirements of the medical treatment to be performed.
In a prior hair removal preparation procedure, body hair was removed by moistening or lathering the body site and shaving with a safety razor. Cleanliness and sterility of the hair removal procedure were obtained in large measure by the use of a sterilized, disposable blade. The blade was discarded after one use. Subsequently, the advent of an economical, disposable, safety razor made it feasible to employ the razor a single time and to discard the razor after one use.
It has been determined by medical practitioners that although a safety razor shaves the body site substantially clean of all body hair, shaving is not necessary to satisfy the needs of the medical procedure. Rather, a simple removal of relatively longer hairs, e.g., greater than one sixteenth to one eighth inch in length, is sufficient to provide the desired access and viewing. Moreover, the use of the safety razor in the preparation procedure has frequently caused small nicks and cuts in the skin at the body site. These wounds at times resulted in post-treatment infection. These two factors have led to the discontinuance, in part, of the use of a safety razor, and, the use instead of a hand held clipper. While the clipper does not crop as closely as the straight-edge razor, it does adequately remove hair and importantly avoids the introduction of skin wounds which are later susceptible to infection. However, in view of the greater cost of a clipper relative to a disposable safety razor, discarding the clipper after each use would render the procedure prohibitively expensive and the clipper is reused. The time involved in sterilizing a clipper combined with the demand for frequent and repeated use, as in a hospital facility, has necessitated that a relatively large number of sterilized clippers be provided. This requirement undesirably increases the overall cost of the hair removal procedure. Moreover, while the problem of post-treatment infection is overcome by the use of a clipper, the operation and manipulation of a hand-held, manually operated, hair clipper during the preparation procedure is at times difficult, particularly at body sites which are not readily accessible.